Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday (24 May) cancelled scheduled peace talks with the Turkish Cypriot leader over what he sees as attempts to recognise the Turkish-held north of the divided island.

The move comes after he snubbed a state dinner at the humanitarian summit in Istanbul on Monday (23 May) on discovering that Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci was also invited.

“With regret President Anastasiades has ascertained there is no fertile ground to hold a planned meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader on May 27,” a statement from government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said.

Anastasiades said he remained committed to peace talks, but appears to have called off Friday’s meeting as a way of protest.

It is the first serious hitch in UN-brokered peace talks that resumed a year ago and comes despite both leaders saying in a 15 May joint statement that they remain as committed as ever to reunifying the Mediterranean island in 2016.

Akinci’s last-minute invitation to the dinner by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was seen as an attempt to undermine Anastasiades as head of state and bolster the status of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus which only Ankara recognises.

While in Turkey, Akinci also met UN chief Ban Ki-moon on the summit sidelines.

Hundreds of people from Northern Cyprus are expected today (27 June) to dress as ghosts to protest what they say is the indifference of the European Union to the division of their island and the hardships in the Turkish region.

Long-stalled UN-brokered peace talks — seen as the best chance to reunify Cyprus — began in May 2016, with the leaders meeting regularly since then.

Despite both expressing the hope that a settlement can be reached this year, this latest incident has soured the climate.

Ankara does not recognise the Cyprus government and this has harmed its European Union accession process and threatened a visa-free travel deal in exchange for Turkey helping to ease the migrant crisis.